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Khaled Saifulla 6 Dec 2025 , 6:09 PM Print Edition
Toxic air sickened over 200,000 people in New Delhi. Government figures show six state-run hospitals treated these acute respiratory illnesses between 2022 and 2024. This highlights the dangerous effects of toxic air on public health.
Delhi is a huge metropolitan area with 30 million residents. It consistently ranks among the world’s most polluted capitals.
India’s health ministry told parliament on Tuesday that air pollution is a key factor triggering respiratory sicknesses.
“Analysis suggests that an increase in pollution levels raises the number of patients attending accident and emergency departments,” junior health minister Prataprao Jadhav wrote in a reply.
More than 30,000 people with respiratory illnesses needed hospitalization in those three years.
Acrid smog covers Delhi’s skyline every winter. Cooler air traps pollutants near the ground during this season. This creates a deadly mix of emissions from crop burning, factories, and heavy traffic.
PM2.5 levels sometimes reach 60 times the UN’s daily health limits. These are cancer-causing microparticles small enough to enter the bloodstream.
A study in The Lancet Planetary Health estimated that air pollution caused 3.8 million deaths in India between 2009 and 2019. The United Nations children’s agency warns that polluted air puts children at high risk for acute respiratory infections.
However, the health ministry added that air pollution is not the only cause of the hospitalizations.
It stated: “Health effects from air pollution are a combination of several factors. These include food habits, work habits, socio-economic status, medical history, immunity, and heredity.”
